If Romney loses…

For Republicans, the only thing harder than losing to Barack Obama might be explaining it.

By any reasonable standard, Obama is a seriously vulnerable incumbent: a president overseeing a limping economy, whose party got thumped in the 2010 midterm elections and whose signature accomplishment of health care reform is highly controversial. Whatever his strengths on national security and personal likability, Obama probably began the 2012 campaign as the most beatable sitting president in 20 years.

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If Romney loses, who's to blame?

POLITICO series: Best 2012 ads

So if Obama manages to defeat Mitt Romney on Tuesday, the Republican Party will have to go through a painful process of self-examination and internal debate in order to explain what went so badly wrong.

The debate won’t just be fodder for political obsessives: It will also determine how Republicans approach governing next year and how the party campaigns in 2014, 2016 and beyond.

Even before tomorrow’s vote, the post-election arguments about why Romney lost — if he does — are beginning.

Here’s a POLITICO preview of the top arguments Republicans would use to explain and excuse it:

Mitt Romney was a historically bad candidate

If Romney wins on Tuesday, he’ll be president of the United States. If he loses, he’ll be the fall guy for the entire Republican Party.

Republicans weren’t overjoyed about nominating Romney in the first place, partly because he was a shade too moderate for their taste, but also because he was such an inept competitor in the 2008 primaries.

Win or lose, Romney has validated many of those fears, careening from misstep to misstep throughout the 2012 race. If Romney wasn’t fumbling his response to the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act ruling, he was offending the British on the eve of the London Olympics or getting caught on tape bashing Americans who don’t pay income taxes.

On a deeper level, Romney was a problematic candidate for 2012. In a campaign still shadowed by the meltdown of the financial services industry, the GOP picked a candidate as close to Wall Street as any in history. Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said in August that Democrats had branded Romney as a “wealthy plutocrat married to a known equestrian.” He was right, and Romney may have been more vulnerable to such attacks than any other major Republican in America.

Romney was never a candidate that was running to follow through on the presidency. As far as I can see, his goal was to get the job. Following that, he would do as he did in Massachusetts – make it up as he went along with the rich white guy sense of entitlement that nobody should question his CEO-esque directives. He is missing a key line item in his resume: true empathy and compassion. At every turn, he shows that he essentially pays lip service to the people he supposedly should be caring about and is far more concerned with those persons who can pay to play in his little sandbox.

When he loses on Tuesday, I hope it begins the lifetime characterization of him as the “worst candidate ever” and the moniker hangs around his neck as he fades into political obscurity. After listening to his babbling for the past few years - and particularly the past 12 months - I have very little sympathy for him as, based on so many statements that have come out of his mouth, he certainly does not have any for me.

Good bye Mitt. Don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out. You will not be missed.

If Romney loses it was because he was too squishy and timid in articulating conservative principles, relying too much on Obama's failures and incompetence to win the day. The corrupted US media will have succeeded in their advancing their highly partisan agenda.

If you think Obama is divisive you'll love the reaction to a Romney win. The gridlock in Congress will only get worse and Romney will accomplish nothing outside of signing executive orders and neutering the regulatory agencies to once again make us all slaves to the wealthy, elite business class. The Republican party needs another four to eight years in time out to reflect on their failed idealogy of hate.

On the Sandy front, I believe the storm crystalized what is wrong with some of the core Republican thinking. Romney speaking at a primary debate where he says that FEMA should be sent back to the states or even privatized. Can you imagine the disaster of giving states a set amount of money to deal with this and then the Federal Gov't standing by thinking they've fulfilled their part. Every state that could be affected by disasters from Hurricanes, Tornadoes Earthquakes, Blizzards, Flooding would have to maximize their readiness independently?

Imagine the press coverage for such a thing. That is the worst idea I've ever heard.... and that's why Sandy is a problem for Republicans. I believe that Republicans need to seriously re-think some of these ideas and stop trying to generate "cheap heat" with its base by just bashing the federal government at every turn. Good ideas win, red meat is just that....

If Romney wins we wake up to a country without FEMA, medicare,medicaid, or public education. That is a very scary thought. Romney's willingness to have a trade war with China in coordination with his other policy initiatives such as eliminating public education, could actually reduce us to a third world nation.

BY eliminating GM and Chrysler, companies Romney owns which moved operations overseas will benefit from increased demand as automobile manufacturers will the void created by their departure.

A Mitt Romney victory is much scarier than a Barack Obama victory. Obama's record for those non racists out there who are not color blind, is actually pretty good. Slowed deficit spending, brought our soldiers home from Iraq, is bringing them home from Afghanistan, got Osama Bin Laden, saved GM and Chysler, housing starts up, my portfolio up, stock market up, 30 straight months of job growth, and climate change, there is no such thing as clean coal.

In my opinion: GOP gerrymandering ensures House control for next 20 years. Obama will have to choose between (1) Obamacare, (2) Raising taxes FOR ALL, (3) Keeping Obamacare AND Keeping Bush Tax cuts for ALL. I think he chooses (3), we avoid fiscal cliff....but are headed for long term fiscal disaster with no one in charge and deeply divided government. The only thing that brings the county together will be another War in the middle east.....which saves the US DOLLAR (dollar hegenomy).....and then we are back to our normal dysfunctional selves.

I'm anxious to vote for Romney, but not excited. I only expect him to stop the bleeding. It's going to take a greater force to actually fix the problems we face. The Democrats stand as an obstacle to reform. I'm not sure Romney has the steel to defeat them yet. I hope we'll get a chance to see.

When Romney loses, my feeling will be what it is now: shock. I'm shocked an obvious liar and confidence trickster who is blatantly trying to play American voters, trying to con them out of their votes, could get so close to being elected! This race shouldn't have been competitive after the first debate. Usually when a man concedes five or six of his main positions during a debate, he is deemed the big loser, but our media deemed him the big winner instead. The media didn't help separate the wheat from the chaff in this election and thus served to aid the chronic liar and flip-flopper Romney in confusing and conning voters. American voters should be better educated politically or democracy won't be worth the price. A democracy is only as good and intelligent as its people.

Hell Romney tells so many lies he can not remember what he has said, as he even admits it himself. He has changed his opinions on his stands more often than he changes his magical Mormon underware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! rotflmao